Here’s another chapter from my new book, Ten Million Aliens.   The golden poison frog is probably the most poisonous creature on earth. Chickens and dogs have died from contact with a paper towel on which this frog has walked. It’s found only in Colombia, and it’s tiny: a little scrap of charming, elegant yellow… [Read More]

Here’s a talk I have last night for the launch of CARP: the Campaign Against Raptor Persecution, at The Cut in Halesworth, Suffolk. There is something I long to do in Halesworth. I long to go down to all those banks at the other end of the Thoroughfare with a shotgun in my hand and… [Read More]

We are brought up to despise most invertebrates, especially the slimy ones. But we should warm to slugs if only for their sex lives: creatures whose antics outdo anything thought up by Messalina, Zeus and all those carved and writhing figures on the Konark Temple. As gardeners wage war on slugs with beer and with… [Read More]

Not words I ever expected to be writing, but they did a grand job of serialising my new book, Ten Million Aliens, giving it a seriously decent show over three days. Naturally, they picked the dramatic bits involving close encounters with lions, elephants and crocodiles. Fair enough, but in the course of writing the book… [Read More]

  I gave a talk last week as I launched my new book Ten Million Aliens. Here’s the opening bit. It’s not my fault. I fell into bad company and was led astray. It all began  — like so many terrible mistakes in life – with a nice glass of something cold and the company of… [Read More]

Last night I was sharing a platform with Bill Oddie and some of the great conservationists of the planet to launch World Land Trust big fund-raising putsch which they call the Big Cat Appeal. If they can raise a quarter-million quid, the funds will be matched by generous and secretive donors. They money will go… [Read More]

I seem to have promised to give a talk at The Cut in Halesworth, Suffolk next week, on Thursday October 9. The kick-off is 10.30 am, so I’ll have to do it all sober. I’ll be reading from my new book, Ten Million Aliens, and trying to explain – if only to myself – how… [Read More]